A most ghoulish crime rocks a community as loved ones plead for help

Mesa, Arizona: In a most ghoulish and cowardly criminal act, a custom-made bronze statue, designed as a tribute to a late loved one, has been stolen from Mountain View Funeral Home and Cemetery in Mesa. The statue, valued at nearly $20,000, was crafted in Italy to memorialize a man’s wife who passed away in 2013.

The theft has left the family devastated and the community in disbelief. Elisa Krcilek, Vice-President of Mountain View Funeral Home and Cemetery, is distraught. She told ABC15: “It’s really disheartening because this statue was designed to honor someone’s wife who passed away. It’s like stealing someone’s photograph.”

Mountain View Cemetery is no stranger to these sinister thefts, previously thieves have targeted gravestones for items made of precious metals. Apart the stolen statue, multiple bronze vases from various gravestones also went missing in July -- items valued at around $28,000 -- adding to families' frief.

Now, in an attempt to recover the poignant items, Mountain View has reached out to local recycling facilities, hoping to track them down, just in they have been sold for scrap, but no leads have yet emerged. The cemetery is also increasing its security.

The affected families have reached out to the community for help: "If you know something, please say something," urged one family member. "We need people to speak up and care for each other. This is a place of reverence, and this kind of violation is deeply painful."